avast! 5.0.462 taking 20+ minutes to load on reboot

[Crymmsun]

I'm running a Dell Inspiron1150 Windows XP Home Service Pack 3. I have used the avast! free software for years and I absolutely love it. However, after upgrading to v5.0.462 when it became available my computer has slowed down exponentially everyday. On reboot now the icon in the sys tray remains inactive with the yellow yield sign on it for 20+ minutes and the rest of my sys tray icons won't load until it's finished and I cannot do anything on the computer until the avast! icon turns active.

Just to let you know, besides the avast! icon in my sys tray I only have 6 others that load on boot and only 8 items that load on Startup. I've checked with my usual forum to make sure I'm not suffering some virus I cannot find by usual methods and it appears my machine is clean. Therefore, I'm here to ask if you know why this problem may be occuring with avast! If I switch back to version 4.8 how much less safe will I be?

[Rick F]

Are you sure what you're seeing is being caused by avast?  The 'Yellow Yield' sign sounds suspicious to me.  Do you have any additional services running out of the ordinary? (launch task mgr to see... 'right-click' systray, taskmgr).

I would suggest you download and run the latest Malwarebytes Utility.  Update it... then do a quick scan to be sure.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware can be found here.

It could be a rogue AV (anti-virus), but maybe not.  See this link as a possibility:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t109448.html

[Asyn]

Try loading avast after other systemsoftware. (in avst preferences)
That fixes some problems.
asyn

[Lisandro]

I suggest an installation from the scratch:

1. Download the latest version of avast! Uninstall Utility and save it.
2. Download the latest avast! version and save it.
3. Uninstall avast from Control Panel (if possible). If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after that.
4. Run the avast! Uninstall Utility saved on 1. If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after you've run it.
5. Install avast! using the setup saved on 2. Boot.
6. Register your free copy or add the license key for Pro.
7. Check and post the results.

[plusman]

I am having a similar problem with Avast taking a long time to load/update, and also periodically hogging 100% of my CPU resources. I have 2 PC's running Avast 5 on XP SP3. During bootup a small yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in it appears as part of the Avast taskbar logo. When Avast updates, this disappears - but it can take a long time (usually >10 mins) for Avast to update.

I tried following the steps in your reply above, but when I try and download the uninstall utility using the ling I get an "Error 404 Page Not Found" error.

I have also tried running an Avast Scan, but all I get is the AvastUI service using up 100% of my CPU, and then after 10minutes task manager indicates it is not responding.

I don't ever remember having this difficulty with Avast 4, and I have been using it for quite a few years now.

Can you please advise how to resolve. Thanks

[davebaldwin]

I just rebooted with as much of Avast turned off as I could and timed the bootup process.
After the XP screen came up, the clock stayed at 10:41 for 7 minutes.  I brought up Task Manager and it showed that AvastSvc.exe was running at 97 to 98 % of CPU time all that time.  Then it dropped to 50% for a few seconds, the Avast icon with the yellow triangle showed up and the clock finally updated.  Then back to 98% for 9 minutes until the network icons appeared.  After 5 more minutes at 98%, the yellow triangle disappeared.  Then 2 more minutes at 98% and finally it dropped to 0%.

That was 23 minutes at 98% CPU usage for AvastSvc.exe and 100% overall.  I'm wondering if Avast is using so much CPU time that other things aren't getting done.  Also, most consumer systems aren't really meant to run at 100% CPU for extended periods of time.  Some laptops will shut down from overheating which could make it difficult to boot with Avast.

[mkis]

What do you mean by "as much of Avast turned off as I could" ?

[davebaldwin]

I turned off the rootkit scan and the self-defense thing.  Then I tried stopping the behavior module because of some comments in another post.  None of that made any difference so I've turned them back on.  I also have Avast load after the other programs checked.

I'm running WinXP SP3 and my machine is kind of slow but it has 1280MB of ram.  Avast is completely up to date.  Note that it wasn't acting this way when I first upgraded to Version 5.

[mkis]

What if you booted into Safe Mode, then did a repair
- to see if the system performs better with the reset to default configuration
- or whether it does reset to default okay 

[davebaldwin]

What if you booted into Safe Mode, then did a repair
- to see if the system performs better with the reset to default configuration
- or whether it does reset to default okay 

If you mean, reset Avast to the default config, that's already been done.  If you mean boot Windows XP into safe mode and screw up any number of things, that ain't going to happen.

I did find out that is the 'web' and 'email' shields that are taking forever to come up.  They aren't working until the yellow triangle disappears which on my system is 21 minutes into bootup.

[Tarq57]

davebaldwin, what's the problem with booting into safe mode? This is a routine diagnostic procedure that should not be fraught.

What other software do you have installed that starts with Windows? Especially  security software.
For example, do you use the Teatimer in S&D?

[davebaldwin]

davebaldwin, what's the problem with booting into safe mode? This is a routine diagnostic procedure that should not be fraught.

What other software do you have installed that starts with Windows? Especially  security software.
For example, do you use the Teatimer in S&D?

Safe Mode changes the display and icons and other things that take time to put back.  I do not use TeaTimer.

What I did was uninstall Avast.  After I rebooted (twice), it took 3 minutes for XP to boot up.  That's 18 minutes faster.  Then I reinstalled Avast, let it update and rebooted (twice).  It only took 4 minutes now so I think something had been corrupted with the Avast installation although it was updated to the current versions.  If the problem comes back, I'll come back and let you know.

[Tarq57]

So it's working OK now, without the massive startup delays? (Or put another way, that delay is down to 4 minutes, now?)
If you still have a problem, uninstalling and running the uninstall utility (Which I'm hoping will also remove traces of the 4.8 version, since there doesn't seem to be a separate uninstaller for 4.8 any more) rebooting and installing from scratch might help.

[Tarq57]

PS, this direct download might be a removal tool specific to 4.8.
Located here. (The site operator is an Avast forum member.)

[Crymmsun]

I suggest an installation from the scratch:

1. Download the latest version of avast! Uninstall Utility and save it.
2. Download the latest avast! version and save it.
3. Uninstall avast from Control Panel (if possible). If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after that.
4. Run the avast! Uninstall Utility saved on 1. If, for any reason, you can't run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after you've run it.
5. Install avast! using the setup saved on 2. Boot.
6. Register your free copy or add the license key for Pro.
7. Check and post the results.

I did as you suggested here and installed from scratch after using the removal tool in Safe Mode. I also went into preferences and set it so avast! would load after the other services. So far everything seems to be much better. Boot time was cut to almost the same time as before installing avast! v5.0.462 the first time. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that possibly something just went wrong with the first install?